The present invention relates to a cup type automatic vending machine, and more particularly, relates to a cup type automatic vending machine capable of reducing volume of its cup accommodating unit without any damage to behavior of cup transport mechanism.
There has been known a cup type automatic vending machine having a cup accommodating unit in which cups of small (S) size, middle (M) size and large (L) size to fill a drink therein are piled separate from each other in a vertical or perpendicular direction. Upon receiving a vending command, a cup supplying unit of separate sizes provided in the cup accommodating unit is driven to separate a lowermost cup from the piled cups corresponding to a size of the drink to be vended and to supply a counter table (vending outlet) of the vending machine with the cup.
A cup supplying unit separating a cup from the piled cups and supplying it is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (unexamined) 92463/1994. According to the cup supplying unit, a cup separation cam having first and second nails holding a hem of the cup is installed in the ring form and is subjected to reciprocal angular movements, whereby the lowermost cup in the piled cups is supplied based on linking actions of the first and second nails.
A conventional cup accommodating unit is shown in FIG. 1, in which the supplementary cups 5 piled independent on S size, M size and L size are accommodated around the cup supplying unit 8A (L size) 8B (M size), 8C (S size) so that they may be circulated. The cup accommodating unit 2 is composed of an endless conveyer 9 to circulate the piled cups 5, a pair of supplementary openings 12, which are supported by a hinge 11 and are opened or closed when the piled cups are supplemented in the cup accommodating unit 2, and a cup transport mechanism 10A, 10B, 10C provided on one of the supplementary openings 12 and horizontally transporting the piled cups 5 on the conveyer 9 to the cup supplying unit 8A, 8B, 8C corresponding to the cup size.
In case that the cups set in the cup supplying unit 8A, 8B, 8C are exhausted (sold out), a cup exhausting (sold out) signal is output to a vending control unit by a sensor provided in the cup supplying unit, and the cup transport mechanism 10A, 10B, 10C in the cup accommodating unit 2 is driven in accordance with the cup sold out signal, whereby the piled cups 5 for supplement having a desired size are moved to the cup supplying unit 8A, 8B, 8C. A parallel rule mechanism in which a plurality of links are connected to each other by pins has been widely known as the cup transport mechanism 10A, 10B, 10C.
A side view of the cup transport mechanism 10A is shown in FIG. 2, which is composed of links 16A and 16B movably supported by a pin 14 on a supporting unit 15 provided in the cup accommodating unit 2, a pushing material 18 movably supported by pins 17A and 17B on a free end of the links 16A and 16B, a link 20 connected to the link 16A by a pin 22, and a driving slider 21 connected to the link 20 by a pin 19 and driven in a perpendicular direction along an inner wall of the cup accommodating unit 2. A driving force transmission unit 21A transmitting a driving force by a driving force transmission material (not shown) is provided in the driving slider 21.
However, since the cup transport mechanism is installed in the cup accommodating unit according to conventional cup type automatic vending machines, a volume of the cup accommodating unit is large, causing problems in making it small size. If the cup transport mechanism is made thinner in order to realize a small size of the cup accommodating unit, a horizontal distance X1 between the pin 14 which is a rotating axis of the link 16A and the pin 22 rotating round the pin 14 is smaller as shown in FIG. 3(a), whereby a bigger driving force F is necessary in order to make the link 16A clockwise rotation round the pin 14 to the position shown in FIG. 3(b). Further, if the volume of the cup accommodating unit is small, the piled cups for supplementary use are close to the cup transport mechanism and therefore, they are contact with each other in the circulation of the piled cups. This causes problems such as deformation of the cups or incapability of the piled cup circulation.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a cup type automatic vending machine capable of driving a cup transport mechanism by a small driving force and capable of making the machine small size without causing deformation of the cups or incapability of the piled cup circulation.
The object of the invention can be accomplished by a cup type automatic vending machine with a cup supplement device for supplement by pushing out the piled cups installed in the fixed position to a cup separate unit for supplying a drink supplying unit with the lowermost end cup of the piled cups, said cup supplement device comprising a pushing material to push out the piled cups from the fixed position to the cup separate unit, a link pushing the piled cups to the pushing material, of which one end is movably supported and the other end is movably connected to the pushing material, said link is rotated round the one end in a fixed direction and the pushing material moves by the other end so as to push the piled cups, and a rotating power generating means provided in a fixed position between the ends of the link and rotating the link in a fixed direction by a driving force including a component in a direction perpendicular to the pushing direction of the pushing material.
According to the cup type automatic vending machine as described above, a rotating power is generated to rotate the link in the direction of pushing the plate by the rotating power generating means where a driving force in the direction perpendicular to the pushing direction of the plate is transmitted to the link.